Vampires: There But For Grace

When I went back to re-read Dracula, I couldn't find my copy. Likely, I lent it out and it has not been returned, as with so many of my books. But, then, that's what books are for, no? Anyway, I had to go check it out of the library. This time around, there was one passage that really struck me. I want to write about it before returning the book, so this may seem a little off-track in terms of the trajectory of exploration, but here we go:

Dracula is a gothic horror story designed to grip the reader with the fear of a magnificently evil force. The reader turns the pages wondering what this beast is capable of, who will be victimized and whether our heroes will save the day. Along the way we're a little scintilated by the power and the intimate nature of his transgressions. Throughout, Stoker has laced the dialog with references to religion while contemplating the virtues of science. In it he seems to reflect a culture war where religious faith is seen as an antiquated superstition and science is the modern pursuit of rational civility. Ultimately, his characters defeat Dracula with a combination of the two. Stoker is envisioning a middle ground where the two worlds co-exist interdependently. Though written in 1897, this is still a very relevant theme.

Did he write the book simply to suggest this? Was this all to address what he saw as a false construct that only led to division in his society? Certainly, the book is laced with references from beginning to end. However, one page of the 502 in this paperback edition suggests to me that he had a much more profound message to deliver. On this page, Mina Harker, who has been bitten by Dracula and is in the process of being turned into a vampire, implores her friends who are trying to save her by defeating this abomination:

"Jonathan, dear, and you all, my true, true friends, I want you to bear something in mind through all this dreadful time. I know that you must fight - that you must destroy even as you destroyed the false Lucy so that the true Lucy might live hereafter; but it is not a work of hate."

As she suffers through an unimaginable process that tortures her soul, as she sits on the brink of becoming that which horrifies her beyond all else, she, of all of them, has the capacity to beg them to remember that even a monster was once a human. To ask them to fight the demon with love for the human, not hate for that which he has become. She goes on:

"That poor soul who has wrought all this misery is the saddest case of all. Just think what will be his joy when he too is destroyed in his worser part that his better part may have spiritual immortality. You must be pitiful to him too, though it may not hold your hands from destruction."

Mina is instructing them to stand strong against the destructive actions of Dracula whilst embracing the person who is more than just a monster. She is saying that you cannot wipe out hate with hate, you must do it with love. When her husband has a hard time accepting this, she says:

"Just think my dear -  I have been thinking all this long, long day of it - that... perhaps... some day... I may be in need of such pity; and that some other like you - and with equal cause for anger - may deny it to me."

The posse is very moved by her and they go forth with a different motive in their heart. This higher calling allows them to carry out their purpose with more meaning and to go forward with less fear. In the end they are triumphant, though there are losses. Mina is saved from the inimitable  'fate worse than death'. Much has been transversed over the course of 502 pages. We are not exploring the sensational for the sake of stoking fear, inciting some kind of virtue war or demonizing ourselves for not being perfect. We are wandering in the wilderness of the human experience to be reminded to hold our hand out for the other lost souls. Perhaps the strongest message in looking at the worst possible depravities of human kind was this: there but for grace go I. Ultimately, Bram Stoker was writing about helping another out of love rather than judging out of anger and hate.

More on how this part of his message has been lost or enhanced in future writings.....